The Film Independent Spirit Awards[2] (abbreviated "Spirit Awards" and originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards), founded in 1984,[3] are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers.[4][5] Winners were typically presented with acrylic glasspyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the bare budgets of independent films. Since 2006, winners have received a metal trophy depicting a bird with its wings spread sitting atop of a pole with the shoestrings from the previous design wrapped around the pole.

In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit Awards. Now called the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the show is produced by Film Independent, a non-profit arts organization that also produces the Los Angeles Film Festival and whose mission is to champion creative independence in visual storytelling and support a community of artists who embody diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision. Film Independent Members vote to determine the winners of the Spirit Awards.[6]

In 1984 the FINDIE Awards (Friends of Independents) were conceived by Independent Features Project/West board member Jeanne Lucas[15] and Independent Features Project/West President Anne Kimmel[16] and director/writer Sam O'Brien was an event producer.[15] The awards are voted on by a nominating committee.

In 1985, Peter Coyote and Jamie Lee Curtis presented winners with a Plexiglas pyramid designed by Carol Bosselman, which contain a suspended shoestring, printed with sprocket holes, representing the shoestring budgets of independent films. The Reel Gold Award, also designed by Bosselman, was given to Steve Wachtel for allowing Independent Features Project/West continuing free use of his screening room. It was associated with Filmex.[3] In 1986, Bosselman designed and sculpted the Independent Spirit Award statue that is still given out today, using a lost wax bronze casting method.

Independent Features Project/West eventually became Film Independent.[17]

Dawn Hudson was director of Independent Features Project/West in 1995.[18]

Barbara Boyle was Independent Features Project/West president from 1994 to 1999.[19][20]

In 2018 the Independent Spirit Awards first gave out the Bonnie Award, named after Bonnie Tiburzi, which "recognizes a mid-career female director with a $50,000 unrestricted grant sponsored by American Airlines."[21]Chloé Zhao was the first to receive this award.[21]